Raymond S. Persi

Raymond Saharath Persi (born February 17, 1975) is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer, storyboard artist and voice actor. He has directed many episodes of The Simpsons, including "Mobile Homer", "The Girl Who Slept Too Little", "The Monkey Suit", "Little Big Girl", "24 Minutes", "Love, Springfieldian Style" and the Emmy Award-winning "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story". Persi went on to work as a sequence director for The Simpsons Movie (2007).

Outside of his Simpsons work, Persi co-directed Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Ghost of Stephen Foster" music video, from the album Perennial Favorites (Mammoth Records). The video won the "Best Animated Music Video" award at the 1999 Vancouver Animation Festival and was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject. Raymond also created the character and performance "RayRay".

In 2010, Persi moved from Film Roman to Walt Disney Animation Studios where he worked extensively on Academy Award nominee Wreck-It Ralph (2012). In addition to serving as storyboard artist, he had a prominent acting role in the film as Gene, leader of the Nicelanders whom Wreck-It Ralph is programmed to antagonize. Persi also voices the Zombie from The House of the Dead in a scene where Ralph joins other video game villains at a support group meeting.

Persi has become a mainstay with Disney, providing additional voices and storyboard work for Frozen (2013), as well as the voice of Flash the Sloth and Officer Higgins in Zootopia (2016).[1]

Persi is part-Thai on his mother's side.[2] Saharath, Persi's middle name, is used in the credits for "Love, Springfieldian Style".